Page 110 of The Secrets of Jane: Reborn
Inching closer to the sirens, my skull pounding from my rapid heartbeats, I touch the bars as if they might burn me. When I only feel the iciness of them, I grip it tighter as I look over every one of them—powerful tails, breasts out, claw-like fingernails tapping on the stone, their large eyes haunting, all of their hair so visually brittle…
I’ll never get over the sharpness of their teeth, either.
My gaze finally lands back on Melona, as if saving her for last. I squat as if it will help quiet my words. “What has happened?”
She smells like a musky version of the ocean.
Melona leans forward until the short chain around her neck is taut. “Blackwell took us.” Pointing to her arm where the flesh is raised in the design of a shark insignia, I can see it’s healing terribly. “And branded us.” She takes in a labored breath before dipping her bucket in the water and pours it slowly on her gills at her neck, the flaps opening and closing like one’s nostrils would if starved of oxygen, and her chest moves as if breathing, but I swear only her gills move.
“What can I do?” I ask through tight lips.
Free the fucking sirens.
She almost chuckles at my clear naiveté, and none of the others join in; they all simply watch and stare. “If you know how to break steel bars, and all these chains, that would be a start. These tunnels have two openings, both leading to the ocean. We’re very close, as these are the end of the tunnels before they spill back into the ocean. We just need freedom and time to get through.”
Well, I can’t fucking do that. Therehasto besomethingI can do for them. “How long?” I ask, nodding to the chains, trying to remind myself that Misery, apparently, is watching.
“Two weeks.” Her voice is barely above a hush now.
“You will die soon,” I say, looking over her very dry skin, the slits of her gills a deep pink, as if inflamed. “I’ll do what I can. Even if it kills me.”
Melona raises a thin brow. “You’re acting as if there aren’t those that will miss you.”
“I can’t think of them right now,” I flippantly reply. Not that they suddenly don’t matter, but if my mission is to free these creatures, then I’ll do it by any means necessary. “I won’t say more, though. It’s just me, for now. Why did they snagyouin particular?" I ask, afraid our time is paper-thin.
“I am close to the siren princess. And that’s who they have,” she says, motioning to the one with the darkest hair. “Jane. They’ll be coming for you. The ones who miss you. Theywillcome.” Melona reaches out, but can’t fully touch the bars. “Do not be reckless.”
For the first time since being here, I genuinely chuckle, and her dark eyes soften. She used to say that to me every time she’d leave me in that cave.
“Why tell me that, out of everything you could say?”
She tilts her head to the side, looking me over. “It’s something you have not considered.”
Vague. That’s her, though. She’s like Cypress in that way.
“You should go now,” she urges. “I think you just needed to see me.”
How could she possibly know that? No, that’s a dumb thought. Melona is known as their Seer.They’ll come…she wants me to focus on the fact that they’ll come.
I give her a half-smile. “Did you know that I hate riddles?”
The smile she returns to me is so warm, and tears well up withoutanypermission from me, reminding me so deeply of my mother.
A few clinks make me look over her shoulder, to see some of the sirens are trying to get a better view of me. I give the faintestnod, wanting to ask a hundred questions, while also wanting to do what’s right for the moment. “Thank you, for helping me,” I say, standing.
Trust.
Okay, fine. I’ll fucking trust someone, if I have to. Trust that I’m placed here for a reason by Cypress, and that Melona can see it, too. That believing they will come for me is somehow a part of the plan.
And that freeing the sirens makes a lot more sense now.
I’m immeasurably grateful Misery cannot read me right now. In that, I find hope that Cypress might not be using me to my own detriment.
Hope.
Melona dips her head to acknowledge those words before looking back to where I am, motioning with her hand.Okay, I'll, well, I’ll try this trusting stuff, then.
Maybe even trust Cypress, and that Idohave a purpose here. If people are coming for me, then I can’t waste time, either.
